THE DISBROWS

THE DISBROWSWednesday, April 17th, 1667.
"Up and with the two Sir Williams (Penn and Batten)
by coach to the Duke of York who is come to St. James,
the first we have attended him there this year. On our
way, in Tower Street, we saw Desborough walking on foot;
who is now no more a prisoner, and looks well, and just
as he used to do heretofore."
* * *
Had Mr. Pepys alighted from his coach and greeted
his old acquaintance, now so fallen, and inquired as to
the health and whereabouts of Sir John Desborough's vari-
ous relatives, particularly those in the new lands across
the Western Ocean, he might have solved a mystery which
has worried certain local antiquarians of a later day;
for most of the Disbrow clan sincerely believe with
quiet pride that they are descended from this Sir John
Desborough and his wife Jane Cromwell, sister to the fam-
ous Oliver, and hence that in their veins courses that
same blood - somewhat diluted, of course. Some enthus-
iasts, working back from John's father, James Desborough
of Eltisley in Cambridgeshire, even trace our ancestry
back to ancient Troy and doubtless still further; but
with such as these let us have no traffic.
John Desborough, Desbrough, or Disbrow(e), the sec-
ond son of old James, to whom the worthy Mr. Pepys refers,
was a major general under Oliver Cromwell in the Great
Rebellion and one of the seven major generals who, under
Cromwell ruled Great Britain during the days of the Com-
monwealth. On June 3rd, 1636 he married Jane, sixth
daughter of Robert Cromwell of Huntingdon, and sister of
Oliver. Following the Restoration he passed through sev-
eral adventures, including a sojourn in Jamaica and a
brief visit to New England and was imprisoned in the
Tower, but, after a judicial examination in 1667, he was
4THE DISBROWS
set at liberty and appears to have been allowed to reside
quietly in England for the rest of his life. He died at
Hackney in 1690.
So far as I can discover, though frankly I haven't
given the matter the attention it may deserve, any direct
connection between our family and the children of this
union is quite impossible as we shall later see. Such
thoughts are surely based upon nothing sounder than wish-
ful thinking.
A perfect example of this sort of thing appears on
the page facing this. This genealogical table was made
by a cousin, Dr. Harold Disbrow, after two trips to Eng-
land and long browsings in the reading room of the British
Museum. It shows Major General (Sir) John Desborough and
his wife Jane to have had five sons - Valentine, Peter,
Henry, Samuel, and Benjamin. Looking closely, you will
see that Peter and Henry are bracketed with the notation
"emigrated to America about 1660." So far as I know,
John and Jane had only three sons - Valentine, Samuel,
and Benjamin - where did Harold get Peter and Henry?
I don't know where he got them but I do know why he
wanted them there. Our Disbrow line runs clear and
straight from a Henry Desborough who turns up in Mamaro-
neck in 1660. Apparently Harold was unaware that Henry
and his brother Peter were in Roxbury, Mass. as early as
1647. However, our problem is who was the actual father
of Peter and Henry Desborough and how did Henry get to
Mamaroneck? Harold's answer you already know. Mine is
much less certain, much less clear, but very different.
In the first place, even ignoring the fact that
Peter and Henry do not appear as sons of Sir John, we
shall later see that Peter, Henry's older brother was
six years old in 1636 the year of Jane Cromwell's marr-
iage. True, our two boys may be, probably are, distant
5THE DISBROWS
relatives of old James of Eltisley who had several broth-
ers and doubtless countless cousins since, in those days
and for many generations thereafter, the Disbrows appear
to have been very fertile; but to connect Peter and Henry
with the General's marriage in 1636, or to put Jane Crom-
well's blood into their heritage, is to do the worthy
Jane's memory an unwarranted disservice.
In the second place, there is evidence to indicate
that Peter and Henry were closely connected with Disbrows
who had already settled permanently in the Massachusetts
Bay Colony prior to the General's marriage. But before
we get too involved in the scanty, and to some extent
confusing, facts which befog the origins of our Henry, I
suggest that you read "Saints and Strangers" which you
should find waiting for you in my library. That, better
than anything I have seen, will give you a picture of
those first years in New England and of the people Peter
and Henry knew as friends and neighbors, the sort of
people they themselves were, whence they had come and how,
and of the place where they now found themselves. Read-
ing this book, it all becomes very real and close, again
at least to me. I am glad we were once a part of it.
Not that any Disbrows were among the Pilgrims of
1630 or shared their initial hardships. The Disbrows
came with the Puritans in the period starting with Endi-
cott's landing at Salem in 1628 and were a part of the
rapidly swelling tide that quickly rose till, in the
year 1630 with the coming of Winthrop and the founding
of Boston, we have a record of thirteen ships coming to
the Massachusetts Bay Colony bearing 1000 settlers -
three times as many as had come to Plymouth in the first
decade.
And still the tide swelled. By 1634 nearly 4000
6THE DISBROWS
had arrived in the colony and some twenty villages on or
near the shores of the Bay had been founded. Indeed, by
1636, the environs of Boston had become, for some of the
hardier souls, so uncomfortably overcrowded that they,
with their families, were already on the move westward
to the Connecticut River Valley where, in that year, they
founded the settlements of Windsor, Hartford and Wethers-
field. In 1638 Puritans from England came via Boston and
Long Island Sound to Quinnipiac where they founded a vil-
lage soon to be called New Haven. It was here in the fol-
lowing year that John Desborough's brother Samuel came to
this country. Samuel stayed only a year or so, returning
home in ample time to become as involved in Cromwell's
affairs as did his more famous brother. He too became an
M.P., a member of the Scottish Council of State and later
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. Unlike John
Desborough, however, he seems to have kept himself out of
the Tower.
Let me here say one more thing about John and Sam
Desborough, after which we shall let them rest in peace.
While it seems amply clear that neither of them were the
founders of our Disbrow line, it may well be that they
could be called our foster fathers. What I mean is this:
In the early 17th Century the feeling between the Crown
and the Commons was running higher and higher; the Dissen-
ters were having a very tough time indeed. John and Sam-
uel were becoming powers in the move to curb the King.
What was more likely than that these two powerful bro-
thers should help some of their poorer relatives get pas-
sage to the New World where they could start life free
from economic and religious compulsions.
I have never seen the passenger lists of the early
Puritan arrivals, if they still exist. Many records dis-
appeared in '76 when the British evacuated Boston and
7THE DISBROWS
went to Halifax. It was then that Governor Bradford's
"Of Plymouth Plantation" disappeared, not to turn up
again for nearly a century. But somewhere between 1630
and 1633 some list contained the father of Peter Disbrow
and our own Henry. Whether or not his passage was paid
by Sam or John Desborough we know not, but an interesting
light on what that passage cost and how long the voyage
took can be gathered from these figures incurred by a
certain Master Rogers in 1628 -
Passage £1 - 0s - 0d
11 weekes dyatt@ 4s/8d £2 - 11s - 4d
roughly the equivalent of $200.00 today.
Be this as it may, Disbrows were already here long
before Samuel's arrival and from what follows it seems
fairly certain that one of them was the man for whom I
have so long been searching. Here are the names I have
located to date.
Isaac Disbrow, also of Eltisley so presumably of
old James' line, sailed from London at the age of eight-
een on the Hopewell, Capt. Bundock, in April 1635 for Bos-
ton. One of his fellow passengers was Kyrkland, a probable
ancestor of a later president at Harvard. It is not
known positively how long Isaac stayed but when he landed
Peter at least was already born. He later returned to
England where he died.
Nicholas Disbrow, a joyner (cabinet worker) born
1612 in Walden in Essex of whom we shall have much to
say very shortly.
Thomas Desborough whose short record begins and
ends at Roxbury where he died in 1633.
It is around these last two, Thomas and Nicholas,
that my speculation as to Henry's parentage centers.
There is an obvious connection there but it has a tanta-
lizing vagueness which leaves me frustrated - as though
8THE DISBROWS
it really mattered which was Henry's father. After all
it is a cold trail, over 300 years old - and one should
expect breaks in it.
All I at present know of Thomas is that on Sept.
3rd, 1633 there was granted to John Moody of Roxbury the
administration of the estate of one Thomas Disbrowe.
Fourteen years later the Roxbury record discloses that
in 1647 a Peter Disbroe petitioned through his attorney
Jonathan Pope to receive his wages from Griffen Brower.
Again at Roxbury in 1653 another document is signed by,
among others, Henry Disbrowe.
So here we have the names of Peter and Henry Des-
borough, Disbrowe, Disbroe as they first appear on the re-
cord; they are together, and in the same town. When
next these two names appear, they are once more together,
this time operating a ferry between Long Island and the
New York mainland in 1659, the name being spelled this
time as Disbrough. It seems highly improbable that, in
a community as small as New England then was, there should
be two Peters and two Henrys with the same last name. I
think it reasonable to assume that these two pairs were
one and the same. If so, then Peter, who was born in
1631, was Henry's older brother (at least we know he
was when they were operating the ferry). Granting this,
we know also that when Thomas Desborough died in 1633,
Peter was two and Henry was younger, perhaps not yet
born. However Henry must have been at least 19 in 1653
when he signed a legal document - which tells us he was
born no later than 1634 (19 years before 1653).
So it now seems reasonably clear that these two bro-
thers were probably born here in America (Henry surely)
and certainly spent their boyhood in Roxbury, Massachusetts
until some time prior to 1659 when they turn up, still
together, operating a ferry in what is now New York but
9THE DISBROWS
was then Connecticut.
The next question is - who was their father? Here,
unless there were other Disbrows in the Boston area
prior to 1637 of whom we know nothing at this writing, we
are narrowed down to choosing between Thomas and Nich-
olas. In Thomas's favor is the fact that he died in
Roxbury and the two boys were raised there. Other than
this there is nothing. We don't know his age or if he
were married, although it would seem probable that it
was his widow who raised the boys. I think the reason I
incline toward Nicholas is that we know a lot about him
and, from 1636 on, all of it is interesting. He was old
enough to be their father; his later history indicates
he was not the celibate type, and the Puritans married
early and often. An incident in 1669, which we shall
later cover fully, suggests that there was a very close
connection between Nicholas and Henry - if he wasn't
Henry's father he was, almost certainly, his uncle. In
any event, what we know of Nicholas is too fascinating
to be left out of this chronicle and, father or uncle, I
shall treat him as the first of the American line. But
bear in mind that the exact relationship is still in
doubt. Perhaps one of you can go on from where I have
left off and dig up a lot of answers; it is probably
hidden somewhere waiting for you to uncover it.
Thomas Disbrowe departed this life in 1633. Two
years later Nicholas also departed from those parts but
he headed for the Connecticut River Valley, leaving the
two boys behind; they were, of course, far too young for
the wilderness trail. But before we follow his subsequent
life and adventures, let me take a 1st brief look at the
settlement of Newtowne on the Charles River just North of
Roxbury.
In 1635, fifteen years after the landing of the Pil-
10THE DISBROWS
grims at Plymouth, it was a village with a population of
under 300. There were several Cambridge University men
there, including Kirkland who had just come over with
Isaac Desborough, as we have just seen, and the Reverend
John Harvard. The following year the General Court was
to grant £400 toward the establishment of a college
there and in 1638, John Harvard dying childless, he be-
queathed half his estate and his library to the new col-
lege which the Court ordered forthwith to be called by
his name, while, in honor of the mother University, the
name of the town was changed to Cambridge. Actually,
owing in part to a shortage of funds, and in part to the
outbreak of the Pequot War, classes didn't get under weigh
until '38. In that first graduating class of 1642 was a
George Downing, later to appear as Pepy's boss when he
starts his diary in 1659. The following year he was
knighted by Charles II and, years later, erected a row
of houses one of which was to become famous as #10 Down-
ing Street. I mention these things hurriedly in passing,
for this narrative is about to follow Nicholas out of
Cambridge, not to return for another 271 years when I,
in 1907 as a starry-eyed freshman, first entered its
hallowed precincts.
Meanwhile news had been filtering back east about
the richness of the Connecticut Valley and in June of the
year 1636 the Newtowne congregation, over a hundred in
number and bringing with them 160 head of cattle, made
the pilgrimage to this new promised land. Women and
children took part in this pleasant journey through the
summer wilderness of friendly Indian country; Mrs. Hooker
the pastor's wife being too ill to walk was carried on a
litter. Thus, in the memorable year in which my Alma
Mater was born, did Cambridge become the mother town of
Hartford, Connecticut.
11THE DISBROWS
Among these settlers, if he was not among those who
had already proceeded them the year before to prepare the
way, was our young carpenter and joyner of twenty-four,
Nicholas Disbrowe, as he was now spelling his name.
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